Don’t dial a cliché

Lazy, old, male candidates, far away in Brussels - these are familiar sounds when talking about the European elections campaigns. But something has changed: The European press has done away with clichés. It debates about using the internet for election campaigns inspired by Obama, calls for the best politicians to do Europe, finds seagulls in Latvian voting spots and features outstanding candidates like Monica Macovei in Romania. In an interview, Andreas Bock, editor for the website www.eurotopics.net, assesses the media coverage for the European elections.

In a few days, Europeans will vote for the European Parliament. At least in Germany, the financial crisis and social topics feature prominently on the campaign posters. Is that also true for the European press?

There are a few topics that stand out. Newspapers from almost all EU countries complain about the lack of interest in the upcoming elections. Some fear that due to the little interest above all right- and left-wing populist parties will benefit. Also, the press believes that the debates in the member states regarding the elections never really focus on European issues but always on national current problems and conflicts between national parties. As you can see: the prominent topics are rather negative.

eurotopics, a multilingual online daily press review, has assessed the coverage of the EP elections in the European press in June. I have flicked through the selected commentaries and was astonished that the Estonians compared the candidates with “Karlsson on the Roof” (a fat child circling in his own phantasy world), that the Italian press called them “well-paid and idle“. Is the image of the EP candidates - as mentionened in the press - really so negative? Male-dominated, naive, far from reality, lazy?

Whereas Europa was taken away by a bull, Lillebror is flying around with the fat little man Karlsson in Astrid Lindgren's novel. Photo: still from Olle Helborn's film from 1975, www.kinderkinobuero.de

Yes, that’s true. Most papers talk about the candidate list of the respective country. And they often criticize their candidates. They are too old, quite unknown or male dominated. Berlusconi suggested putting some very good looking women on the candidate list. You get the impression not everyone is talking this election really serious. Only in some cases you can find really strong well-known candidates who are respected in their home countries. Monica Macovei for instance, the former justice minister of Romania who made her mark as a tough fighter of corruption. (Note: Julian Giglau on the lack of dialogue between Romanian candidates). In one of the Baltic states, a newspaper stated the country would send their best politicians into the parliament. So there are a few exceptions.

Does the European press think in clichés when it comes to Europe - Brussels is too bureaucratic, to far away from national politics, to elitist?

First of all, I was a bit surprised about the quantity of the media coverage regarding the elections. Before we started the projected we were confronted with arguments, the media wouldn’t report on EU issues whatsoever. This is simply not true. But at second glance of course the majority of comments focus on national topics, the national candidates, I have to admit. I believe the cliché-only reporting on Europe is not as dominant as it used to be. Many journalists have realized that the effects of the Union on the state level are tremendous and have reacted with more balanced articles. For example: The Finnish daily Savon Sanomat asked for a more visible EU policy. And Greek daily Ta Nea for instance talked about the relatively small influence of the European Parliament. We need more articles which not only criticize the existing system but also explain how it works and why it is important in our everyday life.

Usually, we think that the British are rather euro-sceptical whereas the Germans like being European. What about their respective media coverages: Is the British press rather euro-sceptic? Where did you find the most pro-European press coverage?

I must say: In the UK the coverage on the EP elections is rather poor. (note: Davide Christopher on Thinkaboutit: “… there is almost no coverage of European politics in the British press, and no British tabloid has a European correspondent.”) But this didn’t really surprise me. Comments are not necessarily negative about the EU. Not all British papers are anti-EU. But they mostly deal with the issue of euro-scepticism in Britain. I really liked the comment of British writer and columnist Will Hutton who wrote in the Sunday paper The Observer on the significance of the European elections. He was wondering if it wouldn’t be better for Britain to leave the EU. Only living outside the EU as the sceptics want is likely to convince the British majority that the option is a disaster, he concludes. German papers are mostly concerned that the EP elections will be a failure. You can feel the German press do care about Europe, you feel this concerned undertone: Hopefully our European project will not fail!

The press of which countries reports surprisingly broadly on the EP elections?

According to our evaluation so far the Spanish, the French and the Dutch report the most on the EP elections. In Great Britain, in the Baltic States and interestingly in Italy the reporting keeps within a limit.

Any EP election scandals that the press could feed upon?

We haven’t observed that many scandals yet. Maybe it’s still to come. But there are indeed some very interesting comments that attract one’s attention mainly regarding advertisement. For instance Czech television and radio stations have stopped broadcasting an advertisement for the European elections by the non-parliamentary extreme right-wing National Party in the wake of massive protests. The daily Právo pointed out that the advert shouldn’t have been sent at all.

Can you hear me? Seagull baby with an ignorant mum. Photo: screenshot from the webcam on the website of Latvian party LPP/LC

But there’s also funny stuff. I remember the article of Latvian journalist Laila Pakalnina who fumed about the European elections advertisement on the webpage of Latvia’s LPP/LC party. A webcam is directed on the nest of a seagull. The bird is not always there but when it is in the nest it has its rear to the camera. This conveys the impression that publicity is being replaced by the observation of a seagull’s backside, Pakalnina writes. You can click again and then answer the question: ‘Are you going to vote?’ Good fun!

Did the press reflect the use of the internet in relation to the EP and the campaigns?

Yes they do. Maybe it has something to do with the Obama election campaign. For instance The Luxembourg daily Le Quotidien looked a few days ago at how election candidates are using the Internet and above all online social networks like Facebook and Twitter. A Swedish newspaper dealt with same issue the same day.

Did you also use blogs in your eurotopics-EP-review?

Theoretically we use blog content as well but practically the EP press review contains only very few blog entries. Our correspondents have a look at the more prominent blogosphere, so it seems to me that the more important bloggers haven’t really dealt yet with the EP elections.

What about the very important bloggers on Thinkaboutit?

Thinkaboutit is therefore a quite interesting project. I’ve personally read some of the articles but the portal should get more attention and of course more readers.

Thanks a lot, Andreas!

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